Ohio Special Election Results: 12th Congressional District  —  CandidatePartyVotesPct.  —  Dem.  —  14,211  —  Rep.  —  6,114  —  Green  —  20,481 votes, <1% reporting (0 of 591 precincts)  —  What to watch: Voters in Ohio's 12th District are choosing a replacement for Representative Pat Tiberi …

Kansas Dems choose Sharice Davids to challenge Rep. Kevin Yoder for seat in Congress  —  Sharice Davids could make history in November after Kansas Democrats selected the Johnson County attorney as their nominee for a race that could help decide control of the U.S. House.

5 Takeaways From Tuesday's Election Results  —  Republicans had a brush with trouble in Ohio, where a result had still not been declared in a special election to fill a House vacancy.  Elsewhere, an activist sweep on the left failed to materialize.  —  Suburbanites are more fired up than rural voters

The Shadow Rulers of the VA  —  Last February, shortly after Peter O'Rourke became chief of staff for the Department of Veterans Affairs, he received an email from Bruce Moskowitz with his input on a new mental health initiative for the VA. “Received,” O'Rourke replied.

Top Trump Campaign Aides Are Portrayed as Corrupt at Manafort Trial  —  ALEXANDRIA, Va. — The trial of Paul Manafort turned into a referendum on the character of two of President Trump's top campaign aides on Tuesday, as prosecutors cast Mr. Manafort as the architect of a sprawling swindle …

'It's Fantastic!'  Trump Warms to Rosenstein  —  Nearly fired by the president, the No. 2 Justice official—the man in charge of the Mueller probe—builds a rapport  —  Before President Trump headed to meet Vladimir Putin last month, Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein requested a meeting in the Oval Office.

New York GOP Rep. Chris Collins arrested over insider trading charges  —  Rep. Chris Collins, R-N.Y., has been arrested on insider trading charges lodged by the Justice Department, law enforcement officials said Wednesday morning.  —  The indictment obtained from a federal grand jury …

Obstruction questions still on table for Mueller-Trump interview, Giuliani says  —  President Donald Trump's lawyers plan to send a letter to special counsel Robert Mueller later this week signaling they remain open to allowing the president to sit for an interview and be questioned …

St. Louis Voters Oust Prosecutor Who Didn't Bring Charges In Cop Killing Of Michael Brown  —  In a remarkable win for reformers, Wesley Bell, a city council member in Ferguson, Missouri, upset Robert McCulloch in Tuesday's Democratic primary.  —  Wesley Bell, who cast himself as a reformer committed …

POLITICO Playbook: Republicans' dueling political pictures  —  DRIVING THE DAY  —  GOOD MORNING from COLUMBUS, OHIO.  —  HOUSE REPUBLICANS, who appear to be the narrow winners of last night's special election here, face a conflicting political picture.  Here's the picture many of them want to see …

Why Does Betsy DeVos's Family Yacht Fly a Foreign Flag?  Donald Trump's ‘America First’ Administration and the Cayman Islands  —  When someone untied a yacht owned by U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos's family, the episode was portrayed as an example of anti-Trump harassment.

Donald Trump Talks About a War on the Press.  Andrew Cuomo Is Waging One. … On July 19, Zack Fink, the Albany reporter for New York City's local cable news channel, NY1, asked Gov. Andrew Cuomo about the glaring lack of legitimate small donors to his reelection campaign.

War Without End  —  The Pentagon's failed campaigns in Iraq and Afghanistan left a generation of soldiers with little to fight for but one another.  —  Second Platoon did not hide its dark mood as its soldiers waded across the Korengal River in the bright light of afternoon.

China announces 25% tariffs on $16 billion worth of US goods, including certain vehicles, fuel and fiber optics  — The Chinese Ministry of Commerce announces a 25 percent charge on $16 billion worth of U.S. goods, including auto and crude oil.  — China's announcement comes …

Leaked document: Putin lobbied Trump on arms control  —  A list of issues he shared with Trump in Helsinki suggests Russia wants to continue traditional nuclear talks with the U.S. — but doesn't answer all questions about their meeting.  —  Vladimir Putin presented President Donald Trump …

How a senior DOJ official helped Dem researchers on Trump-Russia case  —  Hundreds of pages of previously unreported emails and memos provide the clearest evidence yet that a research firm, hired by Hillary Clinton  —  's campaign and the Democratic National Committee (DNC) …

Top female executive leaves Amazon after being accused of ‘inappropriate’ comments in meetings and ‘abuse of power’, nine months after getting promoted in sex harassment reshuffle  — Amazon Studios head of unscripted programming Heather Schuster has left the company after less than one year, and only nine months in her current role

The New York Times Company Reports 2018 Second-Quarter Results  —  NEW YORK—(BUSINESS WIRE)— The New York Times Company (NYSE:NYT) announced today second-quarter 2018 diluted earnings per share from continuing operations of $.14 compared with $.09 earnings per share in the same period of 2017.

How America stopped prosecuting white-collar crime and public corruption, in charts  —  Memo to all those supposed law-and-order fans out there, including in the White House: The United States is currently on track to notch the fewest prosecutions of white-collar and public corruption crimes on record.

New Poll: 43% of Republicans Want to Give Trump the Power to Shut Down Media … Freedom of the press may be guaranteed in the Constitution.  But a plurality of Republicans want to give President Trump the authority to close down certain news outlets, according to a new public opinion survey conducted Ipsos …

Trump's capital gains tax idea is handout to the rich, broken promise to workers: Wyden  —  The Trump administration is weighing bypassing Congress to give the rich more tax breaks instead of protecting Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security.  —  CONNECT  —  News broke last week …